I came home from the sewing group two days later to find a strange omega sitting in my mother’s kitchen drinking tea.

“Salem, come sit,” Ma said, holding out a hand.

I stared at the stranger. The first thought in my head was that he would have started at the houses as a blue bracelet, and they would have been wracking their brains to find a newer, more expensive color for him. He had bright blue eyes and long wavy dark hair and something about the way his face was put together made him look shockingly vulnerable. He wore very nice clothes.

“Yes, please,” he said, with a bit of West Texas twang in his voice. His smile was comforting and a little seductive. Yeah, he would have been serious competition.

“What’s going on?” I asked warily.

“Holland is here with an offer for you,” Ma said and I could have sworn she was trying not to cry.

“Sit, please,” Holland said and patted the chair beside him.

I sat, because it would have been rude not to, and watched him warily. And maybe it was because I was watching him so closely that I notice the brief moment where his eyes flickered, the whites showing while the colored parts disappeared up under his lids. Was he sick? Then he was back and entirely normal and I couldn’t have said for sure what it was that I’d seen.

“How are you and the baby getting along?” he asked me. Just conversation. Maybe.

“We’re fine, thank you,” I replied.

“You look well,” he said breezily. “My mate has been after me to have another pup, but I keep telling him four is probably enough, unless he wants to strike out and start his own pack.” He and Ma laughed lightly at that and started to reminisce about the trials of adding more pups to a family.

Four pups. Was this Oscar’s friend? Or the friend’s mate, probably?

I ran my hands anxiously over my belly, wondering what this visit meant and who this omega was.

Finally, they wrapped up their story-telling and turned back to me. "Well, that was very rude of us. I can only apologize and confess that I don't have near the time to sit and chat as I would like to have and sometimes I let myself get carried away." He folded his hands together on the table and I saw his eyes flicker back and forth between me and my mother before he began to speak again. "I heard, through a friend of a friend, that you'd become pregnant through a series of truly ridiculous events and through no fault of your own, so I spoke to my mate and to some other of our administrative team to see if there was anything we could do. I have something of a habit of collecting omegas who are unhappy where they are, or are in situations that are less than ideal."

A fragment of gossip that I'd overheard during one of my morning sewing sessions came back to me in that moment, and suddenly I knew who I was dealing with. This had to be the Alpha's Mate at Mercy Hills. Was this Oscar's friend that he was going to call to help us?

"I don't know where you got the idea I was unhappy," I said, probing a little. Like the start of a date, where easy conversation taught you a lot about your client.

He tipped his head to the side and shifted his gaze to my mother. She nodded and reached for my hand. "You haven't been excited about going to work since you went to the Mink. I never had to deal with the omega bond, but Verena and I had a conversation about it not long ago. I just didn't see what I could do to help--you don't want to take credits from your father and me and that's about the only thing we can do to help you. Other than find you a mate, and you don’t want that either.”

"I'm trying to grow up, Ma," I reminded her a little petulantly. "I should be able to solve my own problems."

"Some problems," Holland said, "are meant to be solved by your pack, whether it's the pack of your family, or the entire enclave." He unlaced his fingers and let his hands fall open, palms up. "We always have a place for good workers in Mercy Hills, which I understand you are. And after the pup comes, you'll have six months to get used to being a parent and to catch up on some of your sleep." His eyes twinkled here and I couldn't help my own smile in response. "And I'll have you know that my own packbrother has a pup with one of our omegas and they aren't mated yet. Though I understand it may be happening in the future, but that's between them. We don't bother ourselves over packmembers' private lives unless they are affecting the pack." He sat back and watched me, more attentively than the offer he was making would warrant, I thought.

Was this Oscar's plan? "I had planned to buy an apartment here," I said tentatively, feeling him out. "I don't know if I'd have much left over after I've paid for it." Really, I wouldn't have anything, but I wasn't actually talking about the apartment—I was trying to be sure that this wasn't just a happy accident, but was the plan for bringing Damian and me together.

He nodded as if this was entirely reasonable. "Of course, if you want. All housing in Mercy Hills is pack-owned and we will assign you a place according to your needs. Probably something close to the other omegas—we have a few new families starting up and it's always good to have someone around with pups the same age as yours. So your credits here are yours to do with as you please. We provide a small stipend during your six months of puppy leave, then we'll expect you to start contributing to the pack in whatever ways your skills allow. And of course, if you're unhappy you can always return here. Or, you may find that the right alpha tumbles into your lap when you're least expecting it." His eyes glittered and I felt his foot come gently down on mine.

Oh, you are from Damian. Or Oscar. I turned to look at Ma, and she squeezed my hand.

"You know you're always welcome here," she told me. "I'd keep you forever if you needed it, but I know you want to be out on your own." She smiled wistfully. “That doesn’t mean you have to move away from Nevada Ashes.”

Holland got gracefully to his feet. "I'll leave you two to talk about this. I've never been to Nevada Ashes before, I can just stroll around for half an hour and check in after that." He pulled out a phone, more expensive than mine, and checked the time. "I should find those alphas of mine too, and see what they're up to." He winked and started for the front door.

I jumped to my feet. "I'll walk you out," I said, and waved Ma back to her seat.

"That would be kind," Holland said.

As I let him out the front door, I whispered, "Do you know Oscar?"

"My mate does." He took my hand and held if for a moment, all his attention on me. "You're not being forced into this, are you? If you are, we can fix that. The Agency isn’t forcing you to serve this alpha?”

I shook my head and he looked relieved, but the worry never quite left his face. “Is it here? You don't have to give yourself away just to get away from here.” A wave of his hand took in, not just the enclave and the heat shimmering up off the ground, but everything we stood for, and it hit me that he didn't like Nevada Ashes any more than any of the other packs did. And that made me even more determined to go look after Damian, and to live in the human world, whatever that meant. “If it’s just the credits you need,” he continued, but I interrupted him.

“Not forced at all,” I said, my voice firm. "I don't know much about him, but my instincts have trusted him since the first time we met. We'll be fine."

His shoulders relaxed and he nodded thoughtfully. "Funny how you know when you meet the right one, don't you? Assuming you can get out of your own way." He blinked and that laser-focus returned to me. "You seem fairly good at getting out of your own way." He smiled, still with that shadow of doubt in his eyes, and squeezed my hand, then let go and took a few steps away. "What would you recommend I go look at around here?"

"The orchards are off in that direction," I said, pointing. "I like to go there sometimes, especially when it's hot. They're very green."

He thanked me gravely and left with a friendly wave. And I turned to go back inside and break the news to my mother that I was leaving Nevada Ashes.